Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is out. After a series of public relations disasters resulting from claims of sexual harassment, sexism, privacy invasions and law enforcement evasions, the co-founder announced his resignation under pressure from investors. The new face for the company will undoubtedly encounter a slew of challenges right off the bat.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau playfully challenged actor Matthew Perry to a fight over Twitter on Saturday, just weeks after Perry let the world know that he once beat Trudeau up at their elementary school in Canada.

During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last month, Perry told the story, as extremely unlikely as it might seem.

“My friend Chris Murray, who was also in the fifth grade in Canada, reminded me that we actually beat up Justin Trudeau,” he said. “We both beat him up. I think he was excelling in a sport that we weren’t so it was pure jealousy.”

“I think he was the only kid in school that we could beat up,” he added. “You know, I’m not bragging about this, this is terrible. I was a stupid kid, I didn’t want to beat him up. In fact, I think at one point I tried to turn it into love play.”

Even though Perry expressed remorse, that wasn’t good enough for Trudeau, who in his challenge on Saturday ― which was April Fools’ Day ― correctly noted that Chandler, Perry’s character on “Friends,” has a very punchable face.

I've been giving it some thought, and you know what, who hasn't wanted to punch Chandler? How about a rematch @MatthewPerry?

Scarlett Johansson is not afraid to speak candidly about the challenges of parenthood.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the amfAR New York Gala, the actress opened up about her experience raising her 2-year-old daughter, Rose Dorothy.

“I don’t profess to know anything about parenting, anything more than anybody else,” she said. “Being a working mom ― it’s an incredible challenge, it’s an incredible gift, and I think you always feel a little bit of guilt,” she added.

“If you’re at work, you feel like you’re missing out on those special moments with your kid. If you’re with your kid, you feel like you’re not giving enough to your job. But it’s a balance,” the actress continued. “I have a lot of huge admiration and respect for working moms. I’m barely, barely holding it together.”

Johansson was a guest of honor at the amfAR Gala and received an Award of Courage for her work in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS.

The actress attended the event with her own mother, Melanie Sloan, whom she praised as one of her greatest inspirations.

“She never shielded us from what was going on in the zeitgeist in culture,” she said. “She always made us aware, you know, socially aware. She always encouraged us to be politically and socially active, so I couldn’t imagine a better date tonight.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The main objective of this book is to provide the necessary background to work with big data by introducing some novel optimization algorithms and codes capable of working in the big data setting as well as introducing some applications in big data optimization for both academics and practitioners interested, and to benefit society, industry, academia, and government. Presenting applications in a variety of industries, this book will be useful for the researchers aiming to analyses large scale data. Several optimization algorithms for big data including convergent parallel algorithms, limited memory bundle algorithm, diagonal bundle method, convergent parallel algorithms, network analytics, and many more have been explored in this book.

Prosecutors’ decision to seek the arrest of Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong threatens to knock one of the world’s biggest companies off course—and, represents a significant challenge to South Korea’s large, family-run companies.WSJ.com: WSJD

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state complicates challenges facing Exxon Mobil Corp., which must manage a transition to a new CEO but also the scrutiny Mr. Tillerson’s new public role could bring.WSJ.com: US Business

Themain objective of this book is to provide the necessary background to work withbig data by introducing some novel optimization algorithms and codes capable ofworking in the big data setting as well as introducing some applications in bigdata optimization for both academics and practitioners interested, and tobenefit society, industry, academia, and government. Presenting applications ina variety of industries, this book will be useful for the researchers aiming toanalyses large scale data. Several optimization algorithms for big dataincluding convergent parallel algorithms, limited memory bundle algorithm, diagonal bundle method, convergent parallel algorithms, network analytics, andmany more have been explored in this book.

This book consists of papers presented at the International Conference on “China: The Next Decade”, organized by the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2007 to commemorate the Institute’s 10th anniversary. With eight papers covering China’s economic, social and political development, this volume offers a balanced yet in-depth assessment of the challenges facing China in the next decade. Featuring contributions from internationally renowned scholars, this timely volume analyzes key aspects of China’s reforms and development, such as the financial reform, international trade, leadership succession, social protests, health care reform and ethnic relationships. It is suitable for China scholars as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in China’s polity, economy and society. Contents: How to Sustain China’s Growth Miracle? (E S Prasad); China’s Mounting External Balances: Trade, Foreign Investment and Regional Production Sharing (S Y Tong & Y Zheng); China’s Protest Wave: Political Threat or Growing Pains? (A G Walder); The 17th Party Congress and the CCP’s Changing Elite Politics (You J); Diminishing Demographic Dividends: Implications for China’s Growth Sustainability (D Lu); Towards Universal Coverage: China’s New Healthcare Insurance Reforms (E Gu); A New Perspective in Guiding Ethnic Relations in the 21st Century — “De-politicization” of Ethnicity in China (R Ma); Is There an Asian Value? Popular Underst
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Charitable initiative Star Wars: Force for Change kicked off a month-long campaign called “Show Your Force” in early April. Through it, Lucasfilm and Disney will be matching donations to four nonprofits for up to $ 1 million.

What’s more, donors have the chance to win a trip to hang out with Luke Skywalker Mark Hamill, and visit Skellig Michael, an Irish island where a portion of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was filmed.

According to the Force for Change website, the campaign, which is sponsored by crowdfunding site Crowdrise, will run until Star Wars Day, May 4. People can donate or fundraise for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Make-A-Wish through the site.

To meet Mark Hamill, a participant will have to contribute or raise the most money during the week of April 26 – May 4. And while meeting the “Star Wars” legend is already pretty sweet, the interaction will take place at Star Wars Celebration in London. The winner will receive two tickets there, where the lucky fan can take a selfie or “create a secret personalized handshake” with the star, as Hamill joked in a video.

Participants who donate at least $ 10 will have the chance to enter the sweepstakes for an all-expenses paid trip to Ireland, which includes the island where the final scene of the film was shot.

This contributed volume draws a vital picture of the health care sector, which, like no other is affected by technology push and stakeholder pull. Innovative product and service solutions emerge, which have to integrate different stakeholders’ interests. This book studies current challenges in health care management from different perspectives. Research articles analyze the situation in the health care sector and present solutions in the following areas: the health care system; hospitals; teams in health care; patients’ perspectives; assessment of technologies and innovations; and toolkits for organizing health care. All these contributions summarize pressing hot topics in the health care sector, analyze their future potential, and derive managerial implications. Outstanding best practices throughout Europe are presented in the case study section of the book. Consequently, the book closes the gap between science and practical application by addressing not only readers from academia but also practitioners working in the health care industry.

Motherhood can be one of the most intense and transformative experiences of a woman’s life. While many books explore the do’s and don’ts of effective parenting, few offer guidance on navigating the tumultuous inner experience of being a mother, with all its joy, pain, change, and uncertainty. Your Children Will Raise You explores the profound inward challenges and rewards of motherhood, from first giving birth to the empty nest. The editorâ??herself a mother of two sonsâ??has chosen some of the most insightful writings about the emotional and spiritual landscape of motherhoodâ??twenty-four essays in allâ??drawn from the best books, articles, and essays, as well as two original essays. The authors speak from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, each exploring a unique dimension of the journey of motherhood. Your Children Will Raise You features writings by Poet and novelist Louise Erdrich, who captures the sheer wonder and awe of early motherhood. Ariel Goreâ??a self-described "hip-momma," fully in touch with today’s youth cultureâ??who reflects on the challenges of dealing with her own daughter’s adolescent rebellion. Journalist Joan Peters, who highlights the rise of the "Power Mom" and the risks of overparenting to our children and to ourselves. Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Huntâ??husband and wife psychotherapistsâ??explore why it is that our own childhoods so often come back to haunt us when we become parents ourselves. Zen teacher Cheri Huber offers a spiritual perspective: sometimes it’s us parents who need a "time out"â??time to get in touch with ourselves so we can be more fully present and loving with our children.
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic is at a critical turning point. Compelling new findings herald the potential to eventually grind the epidemic to a halt through a combination of expanded treatment coverage and new biomedical approaches to prevention. At the same time, the severe global economic downturns have negatively affected wealthy donor nations that have provided the funds and technical support for programs in the developing world. It is against this backdrop that this landmark three-volume set was developed. It provides a broad overview of the critical political issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, inspects key areas of policy and policymaking, and spotlights the most important forms of activism and community mobilization. The volumes reflect an eclectic and wide-ranging set of issues written by an international team comprising dozens of authors from nations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, Cambodia, Norway, and Qatar. The international contributors represent a variety of disciplines and bring with them a range of styles and methodological approaches appropriate to their specific topics and disciplines. An important addition to academic and public libraries, this expansive work will benefit students and other readers interested in politics, policymaking, public health, activism, and community mobilization, both in the United States and globally.

New – Written for the sufferer, caregiver, or healthcare professional, this title addresses challenges of oral, head, and neck cancers, including treatment planning and surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and skincare, communication and swallowing disorders, good nutrition, insurance issues, and clinical trials. The book is practically and accessibly written tor any reader, and an appendix lists outreach and support programs, further literature, web sites, and helpful orga

Eckhart Tolle discusses embracing the limitations life presents to us, instead of resisting the present moment. Challenges and difficulties are a natural part of life, but when we meet challenges with negativity we create more suffering for ourselves.

Crisis situations — personal or collective — offer us the possibility of opening to a new way of being in the world. We can no longer believe the media’s message of fear– fear is an unconscious response that creates more negativity.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

GPS for the Soul – The Huffington Post
Special News Bulletin-http://www.acrx.org -As millions of Americans strive to deal with the economic downturn,loss of jobs,foreclosures,high cost of gas,and the rising cost of prescription drug cost. Charles Myrick ,the President of American Consultants Rx, announced the re-release of the American Consultants Rx community service project which consist of millions of free discount prescription cards being donated to thousands of not for profits,hospitals,schools,churches,etc. in an effort to assist the uninsured,under insured,and seniors deal with the high cost of prescription drugs.-American Consultants Rx -Pharmacy Discount Network News

Criticism and condemnation of al-Qaeda that originate from the worldwide Muslim community present the most formidable challenge to its existence and legitimacy as an organization and movement. There is ample literature that questions whether or not there are Muslim challenges to the ideology and harmful acts of violent extremists such as al-Qaeda. However there is a growing body of literature from the worldwide Muslim community that challenges al-Qaeda. Consequently, challenges to al-Qaeda that originate from the worldwide Muslim community are critical because they are a component in any strategy to defeat al-Qaeda. The identification, amplification, and exploitation of these Muslim challenges will serve to defeat al-Qaeda. The purpose of this monograph is to determine the nature of this Muslim challenge to al-Qaeda. This is accomplished by analyzing the recent revisions of the former mujahid that helped create al-Qaeda and developed its jihadi ideology, Sayyid Imam. In these revisions entitled Rationalizing Jihad, Sayyid Imam criticizes and condemns al-Qaeda and other violent extremists. To determine the legitimacy of his revisions, the major themes of Rationalizing Jihad are compared to the prescriptions in classical Islamic jurisprudence. Sayyid Imam''s stature and influence within the mujahidin community is so great it prompted an immediate response from al-Qaeda''s intellectual leader and second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. His response and that of nine other former and current mujahidin are analyzed in order to examine the rift in al-Qaeda''s jihadi ideology and challenges to its tactics, strategy, and ideology. Finally, five recent initiatives by respected and prominent members of the worldwide Muslim community are analyzed to demonstrate the Muslim challenge to al-Qaeda. These challenges from Sayyid Imam, the ideological rift among mujahidin such as al-Zawahiri, initiatives from the worldwide Muslim community, and the identification, amplification, and explo
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“The Identity Project,” from photographer Sarah Deragon, challenges the way that we compartmentalize and think about queerness and identity.

The photo series captures the way subjects want to present themselves to the world around them and communicate their personal ways of self-identifying. Mainstream understandings of what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tend to be narrow and specific, but with “The Identity Project,” we can see the infinite shades and hues of queerness that make up the spectrum of human identity.

The Huffington Post chatted with Deragon this week about her work and how the project has grown.

The Huffington Post: What is your driving vision for The Identity Project?
Sarah Deragon: My main vision for The Identity Project is to expand what we normally understand to be the LGBTQ communities. I wanted to create a photo project that allowed participants to self-identify and stand up and be seen for who they really are. I honestly thought that the project would be a small collection of 50 or so photographs, but the response to the project was so profound that I decided to expand it and travel to several US cities like New York City, Portland, Chicago and soon Austin to photograph more people. I imagine that this will be an ongoing project for me throughout my lifetime.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

American Apparel Inc. is teetering on the edge of chaos.
And if that in itself is nothing new, this time around the retailer’s facing an unusually thorny set of challenges on multiple fronts:
• Ousted founder Dov Charney continues to stir up trouble, from agitating an already disgruntled workforce to seeking a backer to buy the firm, moving ahead with arbitration and, tonight, appearing on ABC’s “20/20.”
• Fourth-quarter losses widened as sales fell more than 9 percent and workers are being furloughed at the Los Angeles factory.
• The brand is being reimagined with more of a social emphasis and some of the scantily clad sales associates long featured in its ads will be replaced with models.
• Shareholders have sued the company, claiming it failed to maintain control of its colorful founder.
Under Charney, American Apparel honed controversy to a high art and lurched from one loan with a sky-high interest rate to the next — always keeping just a step ahead of both the debt collector and Miss Manners.
But this time it’s not Charney who’s courting lenders, pumping up the brand and generally keeping the plates spinning at one of the most prominent U.S. apparel producers. That job now falls to chief executive officer Paula Schneider, who

Virtual teams have been used to leverage scarce and distributed resources for many years. Expense reductions, health epidemics, air travel safety, and complex supply chains have only intensified this need. General best practices for leading and participat
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Tune in for an all-new episode of Love in the City on Saturday at 10/9c.
Subscribe to OWN: http://bit.ly/18Lz0rV

As Kiyah makes the cross-country move to New York and leaves her boyfriend behind, Chenoa finds herself living on her own for the first time in 11 years. Meanwhile, Bershan reveals life-changing news, and Tiffany opens up about a secret that shocks her friends.

A global icon, a legend, an inspiration. Even The Onion joked respectfully, “Nelson Mandela Becomes First Politician To Be Missed.” How do you make a movie about such a man? The first answer, looking back, is: slowly. We didn’t know at the beginning that it would take the rest of Mandela’s life, and that within days of the release of the finished film he would be dead.

While still in prison, Nelson Mandela corresponded with South African film producer Anant Singh. On his release, Anant met Mandela, and the two men became friends. When Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, he gave the film rights to Anant, saying he did not wish to vet the project in any way. Anant turned to me to write the screenplay. I had written the screenplay for an earlier movie he had produced, a musical about the Soweto uprising called Sarafina. I put it to Anant that a South African screenwriter should take on this nationally sensitive task. He replied that he wanted a global movie, and that a local writer would find it much harder to negotiate the complex rivalries of South African politics. In other words, I would be more able to make the necessary brutal simplifications.

So from the start, the first challenge was how to simplify: what to keep in, what to cut. The second challenge was how to approach the man himself. Too much reverence and the movie becomes pious propaganda. Too much fault finding and the movie becomes mean-spirited, and fails to match the audience’s love and admiration for the man. The third challenge was how to explain the politics, a part of the story that is central, massively complex, and at this distance in time, potentially dull. The fourth challenge was how to explain the nature of Mandela’s achievement. Just what is it this man did that makes him so revered? And the fifth and final challenge was to wrap it all up in a movie that tells a story, that grips and entertains, that is dramatic. After all, the central character spends 27 years in prison — not on the face of it an action movie.

The structural challenge came first. Should we attempt the whole life, or should we find one moment in that life and use it to represent the whole? In recent years, it’s become almost an orthodoxy among moviemakers that the whole-life approach is passé. Lincoln focuses on the passage of one bill. The Iron Lady frames glimpses of her life in scenes of her dementia. In the case of Mandela, it seemed to us that the span of his life itself communicated his achievement: that only when you understood where he came from and what his country was like as he grew to maturity, could you appreciate his greatness. We did experiment with the usual time-fracture techniques, starting with his prison sentence, for example, and flashing back and forward. But it felt that in doing this we were foregrounding the film grammar over the man and his story. So we decided to tell the life straight: no clever games.

This helped us in facing the second challenge, the risk of over-reverence. In his youth, Mandela was a man on the make: a rising lawyer with an eye for pretty girls and smart suits, a man who aimed to be rich. He had no interest in damaging his career by associating with the toothless ANC. His plan was to beat the whites at their own game, by becoming better educated and richer than they were. Here was our chance to present a character most can identify with, not a saint, and not a self-appointed liberator. My early drafts contained scenes of Mandela’s womanizing, of his adulteries, and his aggression to his first wife, Evelyn. We were checking my work with members of Mandela’s circle, specifically with his long-time prison comrade Ahmed Kathrada, known as Kathy. Kathy did raise questions about possible disrespect over these scenes. We made the case for presenting Mandela as a fallible hero, and he accepted it. Along the way, we understood that here, in Mandela’s family life, lay his greatest failure, and his greatest suffering. His chosen path in effect destroyed two families. This became significant as the movie took shape for an essentially dramatic reason: when a story ends in victory for the protagonist, it only satisfies the audience if that victory is seen to be earned. This demands that a price be paid. In Mandela’s case, he paid the price of personal happiness.

The third challenge, the politics, proved to be intractable. There was just no way we could follow each phase of the ANC’s evolution, let alone Mandela’s, as they passed from non-violence to armed struggle, from negotiation to pragmatic compromise. In its place, we substituted a human equivalent, which enabled us to tell the story of the political divide in emotional terms. This was the marriage of Nelson and Winnie. We only realized we could do this quite late in the day, when we were searching for ways to carry the long passive years in prison without letting the movie grind to a halt. Our answer then was to cut away to show what was happening to Winnie. In doing so we discovered that we could encapsulate the two political paths — armed struggle versus negotiated peace — in these two individuals. The drama then becomes both political and personal. As Winnie is driven by her tormentors down the path of extreme violence, Nelson is quietly moving toward a strategy of compromise. This insight led to a further structural development. For many drafts, we had taken the story only as far as Mandela’s release from prison. Now we saw that the story of his marriage needed to reach its sad conclusion, with his public separation from her after his release. This framework made it possible to maintain dramatic drive through the four years from his release to his election as president. So in this ever-evolving way, we stumbled forward to our final shape.

The challenge of explaining Mandela’s core achievement was more intellectual. It involved identifying his key insight, its moment of delivery, and then dramatizing it. Everyone knows Mandela forgave his enemies. But how did forgiveness translate into power? Our answer was to focus on his key perception about fear. Mandela was the victim of powerful oppressors. He and the oppressed races had good reason to fear the white regime. But he understood that they did what they did out of fear of their victims. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s powerfully true. Their fear drove their repression. So if Mandela could take away the fear, there was hope of reconciliation. This analysis gave us the means of essentialising the years of negotiations, and it informed our choice of the speeches Mandela gives in the film. One other quality we added, a personal favorite of mine: we showed him as a leader who was prepared to tell his people — his voters — when they were wrong. I long for such a leader in our Western democracies today.

The last and greatest challenge came, of course, with the actual making of the movie. Ours was an independent production, it needed finance, and for that we needed a bankable director and stars. Over the years, several directors came and went, and we met just about every black movie star. The elements never quite came together. Finally our producer tired of chasing big names, and with Mandela himself now retired and aging, decided to go for a younger, fresher generation of talent. Justin Chadwick came on board to direct. He it was who now faced the giant task of creating a compelling drama. He decided from the first that our movie had a unique opportunity to be shot among and with the very people who had lived through its events. Not since Pontecorvo shot The Battle of Algiers in the same streets and with the same people as its characters, has a movie been so embedded in the reality of its setting. The crowds Justin deployed were the same people who cheered Mandela on his release. The generals who salute him as president are real generals, in their own uniforms, choosing to honor the man who united the nation. Justin adopted a style he calls “360-degree filmmaking,” where he throws his cast into a fully populated world, and shoots with multiple cameras as if covering a live event. His cameras are always alive, always on the move, as if only discovering what’s going to happen as it happens. The result is a film style as contemporary as a Bourne movie, as immediate as news footage, welded to a classic story structure. This is highly innovative filmmaking, expensive, too, but you get more for your dollar in South Africa.

Finally, most strikingly, Justin cast Idris Elba and Naomi Harris for his leads. All the work we put in over the years would have come to nothing without great actors. It doesn’t always happen. I’ve been on movies that were killed by bad casting. This movie is crowned by two astonishing performances. See for yourself.

But the story of the making of the movie doesn’t end here. After it was shot, the first cut inevitably proved too long. Slowly, a leaner version emerged, and began to be tested. The results lived up to all our hopes. Excited, we took the film to the Toronto film Festival, only to be hit by several damp reviews. There seemed to be a disconnect between audiences and critics. The film was too traditional in form, said some critics, too earnest. We took the film back into the cutting room and did more work, tightening, sharpening, clarifying. We then conducted exhaustive tests with recruited audiences. We found ourselves getting unheard-of scores, in the high 90s, with people emerging from screenings deeply moved. We showed it to critics again, and at last the movie started to win official praise.

In the end, this is a moral movie, and I believe we’re not accustomed to that any more. It’s not cynical about human nature. It’s not a glorification of violence as the road to respect and power. It’s not a sentimental proposal that love can put right all wrongs. It tells of a man who dared to believe that his enemies wanted peace, and to use that insight to change his world. And it shows that such achievements come at a very high price. “Their only victory over me,” he says in our film, “is what they have done to my wife.”

That wife, Winnie, and all Mandela’s circle, have embraced the film, for all its simplifications. We take pride and comfort in that. Mandela the man has now left us. The legend lives on.Arts – The Huffington Post
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